In certain respects, the present invention comprises an improvement of the roll slicing structure comprising the subject matter of applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,796, issued Oct. 14, 1975 and entitled ROLL SLICING SYSTEM. Said prior patent comprises a plurality of bearing blocks mounted upon transversely extending shafts in a cutter head frame supported above a horizontal conveyor which feeds a plurality of clusters of rolls in succession to rotatable disc knives supported by the bearing blocks. In said machine, as well as in similar prior machines, lateral adjusting of the bearing block is effected manually by moving the bearing blocks along the transversely extending support and guide rods in the cutter head frame and when a desired position for each of said bearing blocks is obtained, more or less by trial and error methods, such adjusted positions are stabilized by employing set screws in the bearing blocks which engage one of the support and guide rods for said blocks.
There also is included in said prior patent of the applicant a plurality of roll-breaking units which are supported respectively by certain of said bearing blocks for the spindle shafts of the disc knives, said units being mounted upon said bearing blocks forwardly of said spindle shafts relative to the direction of feed of said rolls by said conveyor, said breaking units being in longitudinal alignment with said spindle shafts and comprising a pair of angularly disposed, rotatable shafts terminating at the lower ends thereof in blade-like configurations which terminate in a plane substantially immediately above the plane in which the disc knives operate and the same are rotatable in opposite direction to break apart pairs of rolls along the joint between the same above the slice made in each roll by said knives for purposes of providing a clearance for the passage of the spindle shafts of said knives between pairs of rolls incident to said rolls being sliced from end to end. Under circumstances however where it is not desired to have the roll breaking means function in said machine, it is necessary to remove the same from the machine in order to permit only the roll slicing knives to function.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide greater convenience and ease of operation incident to adjusting the position of the roll slicing knives relative to each other and also effect movement of the roll breaking units between operative and inoperative positions in order to eliminate the necessity of removing the same from the machine when it is desired to eliminate the function thereof and employ only the roll slicing knives.